Manufacturing Equipment Engineer II

Job Description

Job Description

For more than 50 years, Photronics has been a global leader in photomask technology — enabling the innovation behind smartphones, computers, automotive electronics, and countless other devices used every day. Our success is driven by advanced technology, strong customer partnerships, and most importantly, our people.

Join Photronics and be part of a collaborative, high-tech manufacturing environment where learning, engineering excellence, and continuous improvement are core to everything we do.

The Equipment Engineer II is responsible for the performance, reliability, and continuous improvement of cleaning process equipment within a photomask fabrication facility. This role ensures high equipment uptime, stable process performance, and minimal defect contribution by driving preventive maintenance strategies, troubleshooting complex tool issues, and supporting new equipment installation and qualification. The engineer works cross-functionally with Process Engineering, Manufacturing, Facilities, and Quality teams to improve yield, reduce defectivity, and maintain world-class manufacturing standards.

Location: Photronics, Boise, ID (US). This is an on-site position, and we are not open to remote candidates at this time.

Responsibilities:

• Own and maintain clean tool equipment performance, including uptime, reliability, and process stability.
• Monitor equipment health and respond to tool alarms, excursions, and performance deviations.
• Troubleshoot equipment-related issues and lead root cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Support installation, qualifications, and acceptance testing of new clean equipment and upgrades.
• Develop and optimize preventive maintenance (PM) and calibration strategies to improve MTBF and MTTR.
• Analyze equipment and process data (SPC, tool metrics) to identify trends and drive continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with Process Engineering to improve yield, defect reduction, and process capability.
• Coordinate with vendors to resolve equipment performance issues and support technology transfers.
• Develop and maintain equipment documentation, SOPs, and work instructions.
• Ensure compliance with cleanroom, safety, and environmental (EHS) standards.
• Participate in audits, continuous improvement initiatives, and training of technicians.
• Train and support technicians and junior engineers as needed.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Semiconductor manufacturing flow and cleanroom operations.
• Equipment systems: mechanical, electrical, vacuum, chemical delivery, fluid handling.
• Cleaning technologies (wet clean, chemical, megasonic, plasma preferred).
• Equipment performance metrics (uptime, MTBF, MTTR, defectivity).
• SPC, data analysis, and statistical problem-solving methods.

Experience

• 5-7 years of hands-on experience in semiconductor manufacturing, photolithography, photomask engineering.
• 3+ years of experience in semiconductor, photomask, or advanced microfabrication manufacturing, with direct experience in photolithography or patterning processes.
• Hands-on experience with clean, wet process, or lithography-related equipment.
• Background in supporting tool installation, qualification, and upgrades.
• Familiarity with troubleshooting methodologies and equipment optimization between PM cycles.